The Wire Staff 
The Narendra Modi government frequently posits India as a ‘Vishwaguru’ or world leader. How the world sees India is often lost in this branding exercise.
Outside India, global voices are monitoring and critiquing human rights violations in India and the rise of Hindutva. We present here fortnightly highlights of what a range of actors – from UN experts and civil society groups to international media and parliamentarians of many countries – are saying about the state of India’s democracy.
Read the fortnightly roundup for February 15-28, 2025.
International media reports
The Guardian, UK, February 16
Hannah Ellis-Petersen and Aakash Hassan write about significant changes in the Kumbh Mela festival, one of the most sacred events in the Hindu religious calendar, with the rise of the “Hindutva project” in India. Taking place in early 2025, the “scale and political prominence” of the festival is set to “exceed previous records”, including a rise in the number of those who want to be initiated as sadhus.
The festival’s growth marks the larger “merging of state with religion”, and serves “as a symbol of Hindu might in India” for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The government spent “a record 70bn rupees” on the festival, as well as launching a nationwide publicity campaign around it “bearing the faces of Modi and Adityanath” (the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh). A religious leader of an akhara (Hindu sects), who is also a BJP member of Parliament, says “no government in the past has recognised and respected akharas and sadhus like the Modi government”. The “close relationship between the government and the akharas” was apparent when the akharas did not criticise the government, but instead “publicly praised Adityanath for his “dedication” to Hindu culture”, following a stampede at the festival in late January in which “at least 30 people died and 90 were injured”.
New York Times, US, February 17
Hari Kumar and Mujib Mashal’s obituary for Zakia Jafri, who died at the age of 86 on February 2, profiles how she “turned her personal loss into an uphill campaign for justice”. Jafri was the wife of Ehsan Jafri, “a union leader, a lawyer and a former member of Parliament”, who was “brutally murdered” during the sectarian violence in Gujarat in 2002. Kumar and Mashal recall that “in the legal battle that dragged on for nearly two decades, Zakia accused Narendra Modi, India’s current prime minister, who at the time was the leader of Gujarat, of conspiracy and abetment” in the violence. In one of her last television interviews Ms Jafri said “I don’t have that much strength now. I can’t even walk now.”
Yet, she still went to court whenever required. The Supreme Court dismissed the case against Modi in 2022. Ms Jafri said, “Twenty years have passed and I didn’t get justice. The power is in their hands; what justice will they give?”. Tanveer Jafri, her son, says that although disappointed, she took solace in the fact that “future generations will have all these documents to unearth the facts.”
France 24, France, February 18
Agence France-Presse highlights the voices of Kashmiri farmers who fear the Indian government’s ongoing “infrastructure drive” is a push to “Hinduise” Kashmir. Narendra Modi’s government is building highways, railways, and housing in Kashmir, while “swallowing swathes of orchards prized for their almonds, apples and other fruit” cultivated by local farmers. The government says “the multi-billion-dollar drive is bringing a “new era of peace” and “unprecedented development”. Kashmiri farmers, like Musadiq Hussain, say, “It has affected my sense of who I am and my self-respect”. Goldie Osuri, Associate Professor at the University of Warwick (UK), who studies Indian policies in Kashmir, describes the situation as “settler colonial land grab”, drawing a parallel with Israel’s occupation in Palestinian lands. Osuri said, “Kashmiri farmers… are being dispossessed of their land and livelihoods in the name of Indian development as ‘a gift’ for Kashmir”.
Financial Times, UK, February 26
Andres Schipani and Krishn Kaushik point out the shortfall in India’s green energy investment in failing to “meet its target to more than double non-fossil fuel sources of power by the end of the decade”. They report that $68 billion is “needed annually to achieve New Delhi’s goal of producing 500 gigawatts of power from renewable sources by 2030”, according to a report by energy think-tank Ember. Obstacles to financing in India’s renewable energy sector include “project commissioning delays, driven by land acquisition challenges, grid connectivity issues and regulatory hurdles”. Schipani and Kaushik also point to Gautam Adani’s alleged bribery scam as a “risk” in how India is viewed.
Experts say
Former Australian politician and Senator, Lee Rhiannon, reflects on the parallel struggles for self-determination in Kashmir and Palestine, particularly to highlight the ways in which the “close relationship” between India and Israel fuel human rights abuses and ethnic cleansing in both lands, in a piece published on February 15. Rhiannon points to a “range of political, military and economic projects” affecting Kashmiris and Palestinians. India is the “largest buyer of Israeli military and surveillance equipment”, ranging from drones to interrogation techniques, with weapons tested on Palestinians being used against Kashmiris. She says the “common foundation” of the India-Israel relationship is “extremism” – Zionism in Israel and Hindutva in India. Rhiannon writes that “ethnic cleansing, land takeovers, the rewriting of history and suppression of legitimate struggle” are central to achieving the agenda of the extremist, “racist and often fascist” ideologies in India and Israel.
Following the recent release of India Hate Lab’s report on hate speech (read about the report in the previous roundup), India Hate Lab tweeted on February 20 that Meta removed two Facebook groups and three Instagram accounts linked to BJP leader T Raja Singh. Meta previously banned Singh from both platforms in 2020 for hate speech under its “dangerous individuals and organizations” guideline.
The Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF) was awarded the Global Privacy and Human Rights award at the RightsCon summit on February 25 in Taiwan. Founder and director of IFF, Apar Gupta, said, “To us, this award is testament to a collective and continuing struggle.” He added that as movements and collectives fight “surveillance capitalism” and increased reliance on “digital systems” that has resulted in widespread exclusion of the most vulnerable and violated their constitutional rights, “we (also) fight through “civil literacy, in courts and India’s legislative process” for the “right to privacy.”
Public officials and parliamentarians advocate
In an interview with the BBC’s Stephen Sackur on February 19, Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) chief minister Omar Abdullah speaks about commitments and challenges before himself and his government. While saying that “the BJP and the government at the Centre have done what they had to do with Jammu and Kashmir”, Abdullah stresses that “our job now is to try to claw back some of what was taken away from us, and particularly to restore J&K to its status as a state rather than a Union Territory”.
On his party’s relationship with the BJP, Abdullah categorically stated that, “the National Conference is opposed to the BJP…things that the BJP is proposing to do in parliament in the forthcoming session with regard to let’s say the uniform civil code or the Waqf Bill which deals with Muslim religious properties or one nation-one election, we have opposed those, we will continue to oppose those, we will oppose anything that the BJP does that we believe damages the secular character of this country”. He also added, “I believe at least in the opening few months of my government, I owe it to the people of J&K to try and establish a good working relationship with government of India. If that fails to deliver on the promises that government of India has made to us, obviously, we will relook at it”.
Indian diaspora and civil society groups
India Labour Solidarity (UK) extended solidarity on social media on February 17 to students of Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi, following the detention of 14 students by the Delhi Police. Students were protesting restrictions recently imposed on student political activity on campus. ILS tweeted that the students had faced “unjust suspensions, breaches of privacy, and police brutality” for their right to organise and gather. “Education is a right, dissent and organising are not crimes. Silence is not an option.”
On February 20, Unau Welfare UK, SOAS Black Panthers society (SBP), India Labour Solidarity (ILS) and South Asia Solidary Group (SASG) held a session at SOAS, London on the ‘Persecution of Minority Tribals: Reclaiming Rights and Justice in Manipur’. The academics, public intellectuals, activists, and UK-based community leaders who participated in the session highlighted the absence of a response to violence continuing in Manipur since May 2023, including by the UK government.
ILS urged “the Indian government to ensure the relief operations for the displaced are done at pace and justice is served to all those impacted by injustice meted out to them.” Another organizer, Lun Fitton from Unau Welfare UK, said, “it has been over 21 months since ethnic conflict erupted in Manipur, killing hundreds and forcing thousands to flee from their homes, stuck in makeshift relief camps. The Indian Prime Minister has not visited nor conveyed any message to comfort victims of the conflict. As a victim family member, I’m asking the Indian government to take decisive steps for justice and accountability, and ensure our safety”. [Watch a recording of the event here]
On February 28, South Asian Diaspora Action Collective (SADAC), a diaspora group based in Canada, hosted a community screening of “Farming the Revolution”, a documentary film on the Indian farmers movement by Nishtha Jain. Screened in the basement of a library, members of the Sikh community and members and activists from other immigrant diasporas attended the viewing. Yusuf Saadi, an audience member, spoke about how he was struck by the “sophistication” of the farmers’ unions in being able to “organize and sustain protests involving millions of people for over a year”. Recognising the role of older people in leading the farmers’ movement, Saadi reflected on “the disconnect between older and younger generations” in Canada and the US. The filmmaker, Nishtha Jain, recalled that in the discussions following the screening, three South Asian audience members talked about how the farmers’ struggle resonated with their own struggle against deportation from Canada. She said, “in all, it was an emotional and fulfilling evening with lots of sharing of stories and food”.
Read the previous roundup here.